Besides Fear, What's Holding You Back?

By Karen Albright Lin

There are many reasons we get stuck. We lack confidence, develop a fear of failure or, ironically, fear of success. What other obstacles stand in your way? 

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Lack of writing skills: It’s a rare author who has raw talent and the sponge mind to read others’ work and instinctively “get it,” subsequently pounding out a first book that hits the publishing jackpot. If one hasn’t attended classes, critique groups, workshops or retreats, or hired a personal writing coach, it may be time to seek education just as someone needs to learn coding before becoming a software engineer.

Ambiguous motivations: If publishing is on your bucket list, why? Are you writing a memoir to get revenge on your high school nemesis? You want to lecture but not entertain? Are you expecting fame and fortune, showing off? Are you seeking catharsis instead of allowing that to come naturally in the process? These may be valid. Or they may be restraining you. Dig down deep, identify what’s really motivating you, and it may help you move forward or decide to start a different project.

Unrealistic expectations: There are many myths about being an author. Mention that you are a writer and people venerate. What an easy job! They expect you to have success with Stephen King money and fame starting from book one. Instead we are crushed by negative experiences. Our critique groups don’t pile on the praise; we don’t meet our minimum words per day; we find that life and writing patterns take sharp turns into brick walls. Setbacks are part of the process, so reopen that file but this time with a pragmatic mindset.

Impatience: One reason to have realistic expectations is to allow for the long writing apprenticeship. “Overnight successes” are rarely that. Ask authors about the three books or film scripts in their drawer. This is not a career meant for someone who can’t stand in a line at the movie theater. Your goals may be unrealistically grand. You may need to take smaller bites. It helps to celebrate every time you meet a benchmark.

Lack of writing sanctuary: How can you leave your insecurities at the door if you don’t have one? You create one. You may live in a small apartment without an office but you can reserve a little corner in the bedroom or living area exclusively for writing. If hubby is watching Monday night football, use earplugs. If you write better out in public, find that coffee shop or restaurant that welcomes loiterers. Buy something, nurse it over your laptop. The white noise might allow you to be a part of the world but without the burden of having demands placed on you.

Loneliness: Often writing in a coffee shop isn’t enough to conquer that feeling of isolation. Most professions involve interacting with coworkers. We writers also need social stimulation to refill the writing well and to be satisfied in general. Most places have writers’ communities you can reach out to: regional writing organizations, critique groups, conferences, retreats. You can pair up with a beta reader, collaborate, or create a support and accountability group. Report progress regularly. If you can’t or don’t want to schmooze in person, try one of the on-line communities. General and genre-specific critique groups and forums abound. Families don’t typically understand the happy dance you do after having your essay published in a magazine that pays you two copies. Being part of a writing community allows you to celebrate with a crowd that understands.

Writing by committee: Though it is good for your writing to get feedback from beta readers and critique groups, be careful not to allow your voice to be combed out of the book. Let your readers know what you are looking for. Be as specific as possible: believable dialogue? consistent characterization? skillful transitions? If you were happy with your plot and characters before seeking input be careful not to take your pile of written feedback and start amending without putting every comment through your own filter. Every idea may sound fun. Not every thought will be appropriate, especially not a salad of impressions. Listen, make note of opinions, then think each over before applying it. A decision to let an idea go is not repudiation; it’s allowing your book to tell you whether it needs a particular change.

Magical thinking: Some wait for their muse to come along and drag them to the keyboard. Multi-published authors will tell you that the best way to call the muse is by getting your butt into that seat and your fingers moving. Get going on that “shitty first draft” as Anne Lamott calls it. Momentum is your muse. Just like luck, wonderful words come your way through hard work.

Take inventory. If you are stymied by any of the above obstacles, tap into your strengths and determination. Confront them head-on, triumph over them, so they won’t have the power to hinder the progress on your writing project.

About the Writer: Karen is an editor, ghostwriter, pitch coach, speaker and award-winning author of novels, cookbooks, and screenplays. She’s written over a dozen solo and collaborative scripts (with Janet Fogg, Christian Lyons and director Erich Toll); each has garnered international, national and regional recognition: Moondance Film Festival, BlueCat, All She Wrote, Lighthouse Writers, Boulder Asian Film Festival, SouthWest Writers Contest, and PPW Contest. Find out more at www.karenalbrightlin.com

Story Tips #5 - The Ticking Clock

By Jax Hunter

Welcome to the fifth, and final, installment of Story Tips From the Big Screen.  This monthly column explores screen writing techniques that will help fiction writers tell a better story. 

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The ticking clock. . .

As authors, we are always looking for ways to crank up the dramatic tension within our stories.  One of the best ways to do this is with what is known as a time lock. 

Time locks set a deadline for the hero to get what he wants and inject urgency into the story.  They force your hero into situations that could otherwise wait.  They throw obstacles into his path that either limit his time or limit his options.  (Some sources differentiate between time locks and option locks - see Dramatica software for details.)

Dramatica sources tells us that if the primary obstacles thrown in front of your protagonist are delays, then what you’re looking at is a time lock.  If the obstacles are missing parts, the option lock is in effect.

Some stories set the initial stage with a time element.  The FOX TV show 24 sets the ticking clock in place right away, and that element hangs over the heads of the characters all the way through.   The finale of Friends set in place the departure of Rachel to Paris and the clock ticked away as Ross tried to tell her how he felt.  Small delays, followed by bigger and bigger delays, kept him from getting to her until it was too late - or so we thought for a minute.

Other examples of this would include the movie High Noon, where the bad guys are due to show up on the noon train; Armageddon, where doom is coming to earth in the form of an approaching asteroid; and Casablanca, in which the plane will be leaving with or without Ilsa on it.

Other stories use a ticking bomb (so to speak) to crank up the tension in the middle or closer to the climax.  Think of Speed in which the ticking clock was the gas gauge moving toward “E”.  Romeo and Juliet are in no hurry to work out their problems and could have gone on ad infinitum until Juliet’s parents set the wedding date for Juliet and Paris.  Sleepless in Seattle’s final push involves getting to the top of the Empire State Building before it’s too late.  And in Monsters, Inc. Mike Wazowski (all one word at my house) is given thirty minutes to return Boo to her bedroom before the door closes forever and all is lost.

Of course, not all stories can make use of a time lock.  But if you start paying attention to both the books you read and the movies you see, you’ll find that the time lock element can be very subtle.  It is simply a tool for raising the tension in a story.  Give it a try and have fun with it.

Until next month, BICHOK (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard) 

Cheers, Jax (www.jaxmhunter@gmail.com)

(This series first ran in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers newsletter in 2004.)

About the Author: Jax Hunter is a published romance writer and freelance copywriter. She wears many hats including EMT, CPR instructor, and Grammy. She is currently working on a contemporary romance series set in ranching country Colorado and a historical romance set in 1775 Massachusetts. She lives in Colorado Springs, belongs to PPW, RMFW and is a member of the Professional Writer's Alliance.